I just noticed the announcement at the top of the Photoshop Windows forum page that the forum will be set to read-only on January 3rd in favor of the cross-platform Photoshop forum. I ask myself how long this information was posted before I noticed it!

There will probably be an occasional outburst, but no worse than we have already and they usually die out by themselves after a while. Actually I think the best way to avoid it is to have cross-platform forums. Things seem very peaceful in ID and Ai.

It was opened Dec 16. With 99% of the core PS features now platform-agnostic it's easier for support to deal with things in a single discussion (and for the "Ask a question" system to aggregate answers), though I agree that there are still platform-specific issues when you start looking at plugins or hardware bugs. Hopefully as the new scheme settles in, posters will remember to identify their platform when they ask a question.

Don't think it's been there for long, I only noticed it yesterday (and by then there were only three posts there).

A very significant percentage of the threads here are Windows-specific issues.

It doesn't just have to do with common Photoshop features! How often, for example, do we see someone having a problem that will be solved by a display driver update on a Windows system? I don't know how many Mac-specific problems there are over there, but I suspect there are plenty. I know I personally don't want to have to wade through them.

But I suppose the change must be inevitable if it's already announced. Sigh.

A very significant percentage of the threads here are Windows-specific issues.

How often, for example, do we see someone having a problem that will be solved by a display driver update on a Windows system? I don't know how many Mac-specific problems there are over there, but I suspect there are plenty. I know I personally don't want to have to wade through them.

That is a valid objection, especially from the vantage point of a high-volume regular answerer. Curt's suggestion to add a manadatory platform checkbox would help if it is possible, otherwise there should at least be an announcement asking forum members to identify their platform in the subject line when it is relevant (not that people would follow that advice!). The only other thing I can think of is to forgot about even trying to wade through them all and just ignore the ones that sound like they are platform specific but where the platform is not identified in the subject line...

Lots of people peruse both Window and Mac forums because a lot of questions are platform agnostic.

Some of us have worked on both platforms at different times in our lives. Keeping up with issues on the other side is a good idea because unless you work for yourself, you can never be sure what platform some future job will be using.

And the problems with "Please tell us your exact version of "X" and your OS" will never go away.

The forum reply of "You need to update to the newest version of "X", update it first and see if you still have the problem" will also never go away.

I think the real issue is not getting questions about a platform you aren't familiar with, but rather the non-descript questions like:

Please Help!

Why am I having this problem?

Adobe fix this!

Or the completely incoherent question that no one understands.

But I guess there is nothing we can do about these issues,

Like Noel, I've gotta say these forum glitches are frustrating. A few days ago, the Jive forum software tried to pretend I no longer existed even though I was in the middle of typing a reply to someone's question. This seems to happen to me every 6-18 months and I've never been able to log back in again (tried all the usual stuff). I've had probably half a dozen identities through the years. They just stop working for no reason whatsoever! Luckily this last time I was able to" reawaken" my current login, It only took me half a day to do so however,

. Hopefully as the new scheme settles in, posters will remember to identify their platform when they ask a question.

Is there a way to get Jive to add a check box on the reply window where user can check either Mac or Windows operation system?

Jive does, in fact, offer this functionality via a feature called Categories. These let you filter searches, listing only threads tagged with a given category.

It sounds great in theory. But when we tested Mac and Windows categories out for the new General Discussion forum, we found that it was way too easy for folks to forget that they were looking at a filtered search. The UI for clearing categories is pretty hidden, causing more problems than it solves. We'll work with Jive to see if they can update the category UI for a future release.

Currently, roughly 50% of the Photoshop OP's identify their platform and OS version right up front. We want this percentage to go up in the cross-platform forum, so on the main General Discussion page, we've added a "How to ask for help" box with a fairly prominent suggestion to include your OS version. For the users who overlook that advice, we aim to do more active admin curation, adding Mac or Win to thread titles where necessary. That approach has worked really well on the feedback.photoshop.com site.

Give the cross-platform forum a whirl for a few weeks and see what you think. While some threads will require a bit of OS confirmation, the advantage of having all the platform-neutral How To conversations in one place will likely make this a change for the better overall.

People are lazy, they do not read "how to" stuff, they just want to post their question and get an answer now.

I don't think we need to filter the mac and windows questions as there is too much overlap. The only unambiguous areas would be file locations or OS glitches.

A simple check box in the reply window, preferably in the text area, I think would help considerably. Users would probably do a check box, where they would not take the time to write in the OS at start of question in all cases.

The PrPro Forums have been X-platform, as of CS3, and the lack of OS listing in the initial post is a constant problem, where after a dozen Replies, we get "Well, that fix is ONLY for the PC, and I am using OS-X... !"

Of course, until CS 5 went 32-bit ONLY, we constantly had issues with folk not listing their version of Windows, and, as we all know, XP, Vista and Win7 are all quite different.

It got so bad, that I did a "Got a Problem? How to Get Started" article in the Tips & Tricks sub-forum, and just linked to that, when we'd get those "I've got some video and it doesn't play properly... " posts. In PS, there are a bit fewer variables, but still enough, that a poster SHOULD post necessary info.

With X-platform versions of PrPro, we greatly encourage posters to put "[PC]" or "[Mac]" in the post's title. Sometimes they do, but mostly they do not. Heck, mostly they never mention the platform, until a dozen Replies!

Much here, and even there, is not platform-centric, until one gets to the hardware, and OS issues - the program does not really care, and other than remembering to type Alt/Option, and Enter/Return, it's pretty common. However, and as you mention, things like video drivers ARE platform-centric. Just get out the list of "Twenty Questions," and add it to the first Reply in those vague posts.

I do not anticipate many Mac vs PC battles, as we have had very few in PrPro Forum, and the contributors here seem mostly motivated to help others. Let's hope that I am correct.